These little frogs are the harbingers of Spring. Beginning at dusk, their mating calls sound like a mysterious, swampy chorus calling us into the wetlands. “Hunting” for Spring peepers takes patience, good ears and a sharp eye to spot these thumbnail-sized creatures. Bring boots and a flashlight!

The Nature Place will display some of the wild edible plants that await foragers within the city limits! Paul Tappendon, expert wild food forager who works with us camp, will be on hand to talk about identifying these plants, their history and uses. Many are the wild beginnings of vegetables we might find being sold at the market! In addition there will be hands-on activities focusing on the life cycle of plants from seed to harvest. We will examine the development of seeds, sprouts and plants with magnifiers, and we will grind whole grains by hand to make flour.

These little frogs are the harbingers of Spring. Beginning at dusk, their mating calls sound like a mysterious, swampy chorus calling us into the wetlands. “Hunting” for Spring peepers takes patience, good ears and a sharp eye to spot these thumbnail-sized creatures. Bring a flashlight!

For over 40 years Ed Bieber has been sharing nature with children of all ages in many types of environments. This morning, during a walk around camp, he will show parents (and their children) through demonstrations, conversation and examples how to nurture the parent/child relationship through exploring nature in our own backyard.

Next month we (camp administrators) will attend the Tri-state Camp Conference, the largest gathering of camp professionals in the world. Sponsored by the American Camp Association (ACA), this 3-day meeting offers hundreds of workshops with titles such as “Play With Your Food: Camp Gardens and Food Education”, “Competition: Can Kids Live Without It?” (we think so) and “Creating and Fostering Parent Relationships and Partnerships”. We always come back from this event inspired, pumped up for the camp season to begin, more knowledgeable and with an even stronger conviction that the work we are doing with children is what is needed, different from other camps and very important, indeed!

… about our summer options. Besides our regular 6-week camp season, June 27 – August 5, we also offer two more special programs.

Quest, July 11 – August 5

Our Quest Program for girls and boys ages 13-16 is an outdoor adventure based, skill-building and challenging alternative to our regular camp program. If your camper wants a ‘piece’ of our regular program as a nice lead-in to Quest, he or she may also enroll in our first two weeks, June 27 – July 8.

From the very beginning Quest campers will make new friends, be challenged and form a tight, cohesive group as they step forward to meet the challenges that await them. Unlike our regular camp program, Quest is only available for the full four weeks. We feel that this amount of time is necessary to develop a trusting and cohesive group.

‘Stepping forward’ is more than just a step – it is hiking, backpacking, canoeing, climbing, fire-building, cooking and living and learning in the out-of-doors. Questers will be out of camp ‘adventuring’ each week:

Week #1 – Flat Water Canoeing, Backpacking

Week #2 – Hiking the entire length of the AppalachianTrail through Harriman State Park

Week #3 – White Water Canoeing on the Delaware River

Week #4 – Rock Climbing in the Shawangunk Mountains

Campers will: practice minimal impact camping; learn to use map and compass; push themselves a little bit beyond their comfort zones; take in the natural beauty of the areas they will be traveling through; feel comfortable and safe in a variety of outdoor settings; maybe have the most memorable Summer of their life; and did we mention yet, have lots of FUN!

Quest will be one group of 12-16 campers. Quest counselors will be experienced working with groups of teens in the outdoors, compassionate and professional. They will have attended our week-long Orientation and will be supervised and supported throughout the Summer by Nature Place administration and staff.

We could have also called this program The Dog Days of Summer because mid-August, the dates of the program August 8 – 19 (immediately after our regular 6-week program), are hot and humid and often referred to as ‘the Dog Days’. This term comes not from panting, lying around, lazy canines but from the so-called dog star – Sirius – that now begins to rise in the evening sky.

This program, run in conjunction with the Pfeiffer Center of The Threefold Educational Foundation, focuses, as the name implies, on our farm and organic (really organic plus – biodynamic) gardens that the campers have worked in and visited throughout the Summer. It is a much smaller program than our regular camp and has a different, slower-paced rhythm to it. The hours are 9am-4pm, like the regular camp, with before-camp care and after-camp care available, as well as busing from Manhattan.

Campers 6 – 12 years old will usually be in the gardens during the cooler mornings, involved with such hands-on activities as making compost, harvesting, weeding, tending the honeybees, baking pizza in our outdoor clay oven, smelling the flowers, tasting herbs, making colors from dye plants, drinking sun teas, learning about the earth and how we can nurture it as it nurtures us, exploring plant life cycles, watching butterflies, laughing, playing games and having FUN!

There is swim time after the garden, followed by lunch. Campers can bring their own lunches or there is an optional, organic hot lunch available through the Threefold Café (on our grounds) and Chef Anthony LoPinto.

After lunch the group usually heads up to the farm where campers could be involved with animal care (cows and sheep), collecting eggs and holding the chickens, berry picking, ‘rocking’ the fields, harvesting, milking cows, making cheese, working with the sheep’s wool and more. Besides garden, farm, swim and lunch, campers will also do cooking, earth art, cooperative games, storytelling, hand crafts, singing, woodland explorations and more.

Staff will be some of the regular season camp counselors plus interns and staff from the Pfeiffer Center. Carol Avery is the Program Director and she, as well as Ed Bieber, will be working directly with campers.

Campers can sign up for one or both weeks of the program. Because Farm and Garden Days is a small program we recommend reserving a spot as soon as you can.

http://thenatureplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/kidwool.jpg255282Danielhttp://www.thenatureplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/TNP_Final_OTL_Web_sm.pngDaniel2011-02-05 10:55:042014-12-10 02:57:15Farm and Garden Days